This invention relates to the art of water coolers for dispensing drinking water, and more particularly to a new and improved water cooler for dispensing oxygen enriched water.
Oxygen enriched drinking water has an enhanced taste appeal. The term drinking water is intended to include, without limitation, spring water, filtered water or water treated by the reverse osmosis process. In addition, the enriched water offers the health and fitness conscious consumer an alternative and supplemental source of oxygen that is absorbed through the stomach. The dissolved oxygen content of natural pure water ranges from 5 mg/liter to 9 mg/liter depending on the source of the water and purification and processing techniques applied prior to bottling. The spring water can be supersaturated with oxygen by injecting molecular oxygen into a water pipeline controlled at a pressure of 40-90 PSIG. Using this technique the dissolved oxygen level of the water can be increased to 25-125 mg/liter. If bottled immediately in hermetically sealed bulk glass bottles, the water will maintain the elevated dissolved oxygen level indefinitely. Bulk glass bottles typically are in the 3-5 gallon range. However, upon opening the bottle and installing it on a standard water cooler the dissolved oxygen decreases to near the baseline level of 5-9 mg/liter within 3-5 days. Since the average time required to consume a 5 gallon water bottle typically is in the 10-14 day range, the rapid decrease in dissolved oxygen prevents the commercial marketing of oxygen enriched drinking water in 5 gallon bottles for use on standard water coolers.
It would, therefore, be highly desirable to provide a new and improved water cooler for dispensing oxygen enriched water wherein the dissolved oxygen content of water in the bottle installed on the cooler is maintained at the original supersaturated level during the entire time water is dispensed from the bottle by the cooler.